Tremor-Shaken Lukashenka Deprived Of His Last Joy
- 13.01.2024, 22:08
The great sadness of a dictator.
Lukashenka and the propagandists working for him no longer even remember the Christmas amateur hockey tournament. And how many loud words have been said about it before!
The udf website reminds how Aliaksandr Lukashenka lost his pride and joy.
They tried to portray Lukashenka’s toy tournament as an “unofficial world championship among amateurs”.
The first “Christmas International Amateur Hockey Tournament” was held in 2005. Almost immediately, its format was outlined: hockey players who were well-known or not so famous in the past were lured to Minsk with money so that they would create the appearance of competition for Lukashenka’s team.
At the same time, the ruler of Belarus himself shamelessly violated the rules: acting (!) hockey players, as well as those who had barely finished their careers, were recruited into his team to win. Therefore, it often turned out that 38-year-old players were opposed to 62-year-old pensioners.
At the same time, all members of Lukashenka’s team played for him as best they could, but even in such conditions, the politician rarely scored goals.
For Lukashenka, it was not only the game of hockey itself, but also the wide coverage of the tournament that mattered. Therefore, the arenas where the matches were held were completely filled — naturally, according to the order. And state television channels tried to present the Christmas tournament as a mega-event.
The pathos was off the charts. On Lukashenka’s initiative, the tournament was called “an unofficial amateur world championship” for his amusement without any reason.
Lukashenka's team did not win the tournament only three times, losing to the Russians. But in the last years of the competition, everything was extremely predictable: initially it was clear that after the final the politician would happily pose with a fake gold medal.
The last Christmas tournament took place at the beginning of 2020. It turned out to be very successful for Lukashenka. And it wasn’t the traditional victory of his semi-professional team over other old men.
They managed to attract veterans to that tournament, who created the appearance of the presence of the US and Ukrainian teams at the competition. That is, “unfriendly” countries, as the Belarusian authorities say today.
In addition, the squad of the International Hockey Federation performed at the Christmas tournament. Its director, Rene Fasel, praised the organization of the competition and expressed confidence that the World Professional Championships in Minsk in 2021 will be held at a high level.
Lukashenka's fun taken away
At the beginning of 2021, the Christmas tournament was canceled. Officially, the reason was called a pandemic. But it was already obvious that a trip to Minsk to compete with Lukashenko would be a mess. The whole world saw how an illegitimate leader retained power in the country through violence and the brutal suppression of peaceful protests.
At the same time, Lukashenka faced another blow: the right to host the World Hockey Championship in May 2021 was taken away from Minsk. In addition to the reasons related to the actions of Lukashenka himself, there were added the antics of the then head of the Hockey Federation Dzmitry Baskau. Among other things, he showed up at the scene of the capture and murder of Raman Bandarenka.
After the complicity of the Lukashenka regime in military aggression against Ukraine, it became obvious: the Christmas tournament was finally buried. Thus, Lukashenka’s great sadness continues, although propagandists prefer not to even remember the “unofficial World Cup”, so as not to explain why trips to Minsk have become boring for foreigners.
The tradition that the dictator spent 15 years building turned out to be a chimera. Like, indeed, many other things that he built over decades.
On the other hand, even the most elderly Lukashenka has no time for competitions today. Recently, the politician's health problems have worsened. At the recent Spiritual Revival Award ceremony, he experienced a head tremor. In such a situation there is no time for hockey.